I am not a renowned political commentator. Nor am I an expert on terrorism. Therefore, my views on terrorism take off from a common man’s perspective.
It had become fashionable to say that “Terrorism knows no religion.” I do not know who coined these words. But, a lot of people are parroting this.
When I look at terrorism in India, I see a distinct connection between religion and terrorism. Apart from terrorism from the red brigade which took roots in the eastern India and then spread to other parts of India, most of the terrorist activities that have taken place in India relates to some religion or the other. By refusing to acknowledge this, we are dislodging the corrective measures that need to be taken to remedy this situation.
I am not saying that religion preaches violence. As far as that is concerned, I go with Iqbal’s famous verse which reads: “Majhab Nahin Sikatha Aapas Mein Bair Rakhna…” which means, “religion does not preach hatred…” I sincerely believe that we cannot point our fingers at any religion directly or issue sweeping statements about them.
However, we cannot ignore the fact that all these terrorists belong to some religion or the other. Some of them see certain actions as opposed to their religion and unwittingly fall prey to people who manipulate the situation for their personal gains or to feed some private agenda. It is a very delicate job. But, we must single out these miscreants and pluck them out of their communities and take them to task.
It is important to ensure that our actions are directed at these miscreants and not at the religion itself. There is a vast silent majority of followers in every religion, who do not approve of these activities. So, it would be unfair to target a religion for the misadventures of some misled elements belonging to that community.
Some of the comments of our politicians and analysis that have appeared in the media have gone over my head. I think our politicians, the media and even the security apparatus are keen to establish a pattern in this violence than any thing else.
Some of them have jumped to the conclusion that only Bharatiya Janata Party ruled states are being targeted. Some of them even look at these incidents as security lapses in the BJP ruled states. I am unable to agree with either of these conjectures.
While ‘law and order’ is a state subject under the Indian Constitution, terrorism is a national problem. Hence, the centre and the states need to have frequent intelligence sharing on terrorism and work in tandem with each other to combat this menace.
My common sense tells me that the terrorists and their mentors are trying to destabilize India at different levels. The way these terrorist attacks are taking place one after the other, there seems to be a well planned blue print for these attacks. They seem to be targeting the states and industries that are doing well in our country.
While some of the terrorist attacks may be seen as retaliations against demolition of the Babri Masjid and post-Godhra riots, the terrorist attacks in recent years seem to be telling a different story. True, we have BJP governments in Rajasthan, Karnataka and Gujarat. But, that could be just a coincidence. We also saw terrorist attacks in Hyderabad and elsewhere.
The way I see it, the Bombay blasts were directed at hitting our stock market. The attacks in Jaipur, were targeting the booming tourism industry in Rajasthan. The attacks in Hyderabad and Bangalore were directed at our expanding Information Technology business at these IT hubs. The attack in Gujarat is meant to stunt the impressive development of the state during the past few years. To me, these attacks are directed at crippling our economy which is the best way to destabilize a country.
I cannot forget the fact that the attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in the United States of America was aimed at hitting the USA where it hurt her most—her economy.
